Spotlight on Service - Doug Wallack - India

Posted Feb 02, 2012

Hi All,

I'm working for World Literacy Canada -- which right off the bat is a name that inspires a lot of confusion here. In explanation, the organization is based here in Varanasi, India, but it receives much of its funding (and management) from the Canadian government's outreach programs. WLC is an NGO (non-governmental organization) that works to promote basic Hindi literacy among the local population as a means of alleviating poverty. It's not a revolutionary idea, but it is a good one.

My various projects as an intern have dealt with streamlining their library's record-keeping systems. It is largely spreadsheet-based and unglamorous work, but the efficiency I hope it brings is definitely necessary for WLC to do good well.

The part of work that I enjoy the most is being in the field. I started to help with the mobile library once a week. We go into villages outside of Varanasi with a library van filled with books, and park there for the day while the village people of all ages come to read. I help distribute the books, but that's not a huge job, so I also spend a lot of time just chatting with the people who come out there every week for their book fix. They're by and large really welcoming people and they genuinely appreciate what we do for them.